Letters: Be thankful for California’s leadership on climate change

Drought and fire

Re “These Sacramento suburban neighborhoods face the highest risk of wildfire” (sacbee.com, Nov. 13): In this season of gratitude and reflection, my heart goes out to the victims of wildfires, storms and flooding who will face years of struggle to put their lives back together. I am very thankful for California’s leadership to address global warming and reduce the financial and human cost for future generations. Carbon emissions, however, do not recognize California’s borders. It’s time to demand a national price on carbon through bipartisan carbon fee and dividend legislation.

Tama H. Olver,

Pacific Grove

Obamacare

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Re “Mixed signals sent on fate of tax bill’s health provision” (sacbee.com, Nov. 19): The health care mandate is a policy that creates a community. If we all contribute, then each of us benefits when in need. The current administration prefers to ignore and sacrifice this ideal and embrace the hollow sound bite about reducing taxes. But tax breaks must be paid for or the deficit explodes, so who will pay? Not those who have the money. Who pays? The community does. This is what our government is saying to us: “You working citizens out there, here’s a shiny distraction of a temporary tax break so you won’t notice that big business, the rich, and the billionaire president are getting their money back – and yours too.”

Laura Leach-Palm, Winters

Parking meters

Re “Sacramento fails on parking meters. Why is it so hard?” (Editorials, Nov. 20): Your opinion piece on parking meters ignores the real victim of bad parking meters: local businesses. A technology that criminalizes parking with errors and hard-to-use meters discourages customers. Anyone who has struggled with figuring out how a Sacramento meter works in the dark or has tried to call 311 for help and gotten no answer knows the problem.

The city of Davis has recently decided to begin implementing paid parking in its downtown core – not as a revenue move as was done in Sacramento, but to help downtown businesses and their customers by discouraging long-term parking, thus assuring spaces will be available for shoppers. This makes sense on paper. But the devil in the details. Will Davis Public Works Department learn from Sacramento when it makes its choice of meter technology? Or will it choose meters that criminalize shopping?